ELECTION ISSUES YSU weighs effect of gay-marriage ban on benefits

By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University officials are reviewing the impact Ohio's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage will have on YSU's recent decision to extend health insurance to same-sex domestic partners.
State Issue 1, approved by voters Tuesday, not only forbids gay marriage but bans the state or any of its subdivisions from recognizing any legal status between unmarried couples, regardless of gender.
YSU Trustee John Pogue said Tuesday that he interprets the ban as applying to the type of benefits YSU has extended to same-sex domestic partners of university employees.
What's still open to interpretation, said YSU spokesman Ron Cole, is whether Issue 1 will retroactively abolish benefits that already have been extended, as they have at YSU.
"We don't know the answer," Cole said.
In 30 days
According to James Lee, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, constitutional amendments approved by voters will take effect 30 days after the election. News reports say that after that, Ohio's cities and public universities that have not already offered health-insurance coverage to employees' domestic partners won't be able to do so.
YSU was the fifth public university to extend health-care benefits to same-sex partners. Ohio University, Miami University, Cleveland State and Ohio State also have provided the benefits.
Cole said YSU will be consulting with those universities regarding their interpretation of Issue 1's impact.
In related matters, YSU's nearly 380-member faculty union earlier this week approved the details of the benefits extension by signing a memorandum of understanding incorporating it into its labor contract.
But the leadership of the school's other large YSU union, the Association of Classified Employees, with about 400 members, is not agreeing to the terms of the deal, Christine Domhoff, union president and chief negotiator, said Tuesday.
The union objects to YSU's requirement that employees receiving the domestic partner benefit pay 10 percent of the nearly $10,000 annual health insurance premium.
Right now, most YSU employees don't pay a share of the premium.
Another sore point for the classified employee union is that the deal applies only to same-sex domestic partners and not to partners of different genders, which is unfair, Domhoff said.
Also refusing to agree to the deal was the Association of Professional and Administrative Staff, a nearly 115-member union representing advisers and other support personnel.
Main objection
The group objected primarily to the provision requiring the 10 percent premium co-pay, said its president, Sherri Martz.
YSU administration officials have estimated that providing same-sex partners with medical, vision, dental and prescription coverage will cost the school about $60,000 annually.
XContributor: Jeff Ortega, Vindicator correspondent